Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday he’s the kind of leader who is going to “wreak havoc” on Washington, D.C., pledging to act on issues ranging from the Iranian nuclear deal to labor unions on his first day in the White House.
“We need a leader who is going to wreak havoc on Washington and, once and for all, put the people of this great country back in charge of your government,” Mr. Walker said in a speech at Eureka College in Illinois, the alma mater of former President Ronald Reagan. “That’s why I’m here. … I’m that kind of leader. I’m ready to lead.”
Mr. Walker, who was first elected in 2010 and survived a recall election in 2012 before winning again in 2014, said that even in the face of more than 100,000 protesters at the state Capitol and threats against him and his family, he didn’t back down.
He said that unlike other candidates vying for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, he has laid out a detailed plan to repeal and replace Obamacare and that between now and Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate in California, he would challenge the other “major” candidates to share their own plans.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida are two who have offered their own plans, though Mr. Jindal is unlikely to qualify for the main debate stage.
“Last year, we heard a lot in the campaigns about how if we just had Republican majorities in the Congress after the 2014 elections, they’d vote to repeal Obamacare,” Mr. Walker said. “Well, last time I checked, it’s after Labor Day and there’s no bill on the president’s desk to repeal Obamacare.”
“You see, that’s why people are upset with Washington. That’s why I’m upset with Washington. They need to share our sense of urgency. You see, talk is cheap. We need action,” the governor said.
He said that to incentivize Congress to act, he’d also sign an executive order on day one “that requires Congress, their families and their staff to live under the same rules that everybody else in America lives under.”
Mr. Walker, who has famously battled labor unions in Wisconsin, also pledged to “stop the government from taking money out of the paychecks of federal employees for political union dues” on day one and that he would roll out more “day one” pledges in the weeks ahead.
He said he plans to roll out more plans on labor unions on Monday in Las Vegas.
Mr. Walker has also said he would terminate the nuclear deal with Iran on day one and, without naming them, went after other candidates who have said they wouldn’t go that far.
“Now there are some other candidates, including some Republicans, who have a different view of that,” he said. “They think it’s something you should wait on until you put a cabinet, a team in Washington, and there are others who think, well, they can just leave the deal in place and they’ll just make it work.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, while critical of the deal, has said someone might want to have a team in place before they do something like that, and real estate mogul Donald Trump has said he would work to turn around what he has called a disastrous deal.
“I’ve looked at this extensively. I’ve looked at it with experts from around the country and across the world. This deal, the deal that President Obama has with Iran is bad for America,” Mr. Walker said. “It is bad for Israel. It is bad for the world. I don’t need to wait to have people in Washington tell me what I can and can’t do. I know it is a bad deal today, and I will terminate that on my first day in office.”
Mr. Walker, who has slid behind both Mr. Trump and Mr. Bush in recent polling on the 2016 GOP field, also said he plans to roll back Mr. Obama’s executive actions on immigration on his first day.
“Going forward, I’m here to announce today that we’ve got a plan to wreak havoc on Washington, and our plan starts on day one,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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